Kissing Cousins
by Anwa
Summary: Rory and Jess have a chance to catch up on Luke and Lorelai's wedding day.


**Kissing Cousins**

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"We'll always have Paris."

(Rick, _Casablanca_)

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As Jess Marino walked through Stars Hallow, he realized something that probably should have struck him back in New York: Stars Hallow hadn't changed one iota. Why or how he thought the town would have changed didn't seem to make any sense any more. Why would it? Or, perhaps, better yet, how could it?

Maybe it was because the impossible happened. Not the death of Taylor Doose, he was going to walk this earth for eternity following Jess, even if it was only in his head. But instead, the two most stubborn people finally got around to admitting the fact that they were hopelessly in love with each other, always had been, so on and so forth.

He, himself, had never thought the day would come, but then again, they did not only nominate but, in fact, award _The Aviator_ at the Oscars, so perhaps anything was possible.

And as he walked back through the streets that he had once terrorized with his big, bad New York bad-boy image in a very Three Little Pigs meets the Big Bad Wolf type of saga (in which, he really had to wonder about the Wolf, nobody has ever asked why he was blowing down all of the pigs houses. Maybe, just maybe the wolf had a good reason. Just maybe somebody should ask the wolf for his side of the story. Alas, such was life). He couldn't help but look for her.

After all, they wouldn't technically be related for another couple of hours.

And even after that, they wouldn't be blood relatives. So if, for whatever reason, they decided that what they had was right, their kids wouldn't end up with horrible birth defections or anything. And nobody would send them on Jerry Springer. After all, Luke had moved in later. He had a Gilmore Girl first.

As he scooted up through the main part of town, knowing that she'd be around somewhere. After all, this was her mother's wedding. He had yet to meet a closer pair then the two of them, and not just in the mother daughter category, but all categories combined. Nobody matched up. He'd be lying if he said he wasn't jealous.

And who the hell lies to their subconscious? Expect, perhaps, a crazy person. But their not really lying, or at least they're not aware of it.

That's when he saw her. Sitting. Reading a book. _Moby Dick. _He felt a small smile creep up across his face. She hadn't changed a bit. And at this point, that was the most welcoming fact about this town.

He inched his way over to her, "How goes the adventures of Captain Ahab? Gone crazy, yet?"

She jerked her head up, "What?" Her eyes warmed the second she saw him, "Jess," she said softly, "When did you get here?" She jumped off her bench, and gave him a quick and friendly hug.

He shrugged, "Not very long. Long car trip, felt like going for a walk," the purpose of that walk was a detail she didn't need to know. She wouldn't understand.

"Oh, you still in New York?"

He nodded, "How goes, Yale? Ivy League treating you alright?"

Her smile faltered a little, "Oh, that," she said sadly, "I—ah—I dropped out this year. Needed some time away."

He blinked a few times, "What?" he made out, at a loss for words, which was something he was not used to and really did not feel the need to try again. "Oh, oh," he chuckled, "It's a joke. You had me going for a little while there, Rory. God, don't do that again."

She shook her head, "No, no, it's the truth. I dropped out."

"Why?"

"I just needed some time away. What's the big deal?"

He shrugged, "Just doesn't seem like you, I guess."

"Just don't sound so surprised. There's a lot about me you don't know. People do change. And it's not like you've been around here in a while," she muttered out, apparently still a little bitter. Their last few run-ins hadn't exactly gone smoothly.

"Yeah. Well. I've been busy. Stuff," he mumbled out.

"Oh."

"So," he made out awkwardly, never one for awkward silences, "Luke and Lorelai, huh? How'd that happen?"

"Act of God," Rory mused, "He finally got sick of 'em, borrowed Cupid's bow and hit Luke on the head with it repetitively until he got the idea."

"You've gotten violent," it came out a little more harshly then he had intended it. It was supposed to be a joke, lighten the mood, but instead it just plunged it back into awkwardness.

"So," Rory furrowed her brow a bit, "What does this make us?"

"What does what make us?"

"Luke and Lorelai getting married. What are we? Cousins?"

"I think we'd be kissing cousins to put it exactly."

"Kissing cousins?"

He nodded, "Kissing cousins."

"I have a boyfriend, y'know."

"Let me guess, Dean?"

Rory shook her head, "No, no, that ended awhile back."

"Oh, sorry."

"Don't be. It was bad on all accounts. He got married, did you know that?"

"Married? But he's what, twenty-one? Why would you want to be married when your twenty-one?"

"No, it was before then. He was nineteen. Married Lindsay. It didn't last though, obviously."

"Did you have any hope that it would?"

"For Dean's sake at least."

"Oh."

Rory paused for a moment, "So, who ever came up with the term 'kissing cousins' anyways? I really hope it wasn't somebody who was kissing their cousin, because that's kinda sick."

"People used to marry their cousins, and marry people do more then kiss," Jess pointed out. This was good. They were getting back into their flow.

He had missed her, it would be a shame to go back with nothing but the memory of the awkward conversation he had with his ex. Rory was special. She shouldn't be just another awkward conversation with an ex. That was what all of his other ex's where for.

"Eleanor Roosevelt married her cousin," she nodded in agreement, "I think Edgar Allen Poe did too, but I could be mixing him up with some other guy."

Jess tried to maintain his surprise. It wasn't like Rory to not know something like that. At least he Rory he knew. This was some different Rory.

This girl wasn't special.

Not like his Rory.

He tried another angle, "Oedipus married his mom. And they had kids."

"Doesn't count."

"How so?"

"First off, he didn't know that was his mother, and second off, literary character. And in a Greek tragedy, which almost demands something as kinky as that."

Kinky. Another non-Rory-like word.

"Oedipus should count."

"We're talking about cousins, not son/mother combos."

"All right, in sticking with my Oedipus theme, his daughter, Antigone was supposed to marry her cousin, Creon's son!"

"But they all killed themselves before the happy union could take place."

Jess smirked a little, "Too bad that still doesn't happen. Would have made this day a whole lot more interesting."

"Jess," she said with a warning, but obviously amused tone. That was the first truly Rory thing she had done. She used to do that all the time when they were dating, and before when they were friends. When he was saying or doing something she knew she shouldn't condone, but found funny anyways.

"It would."

She shrugged, "So, I've got to get going. Mother/daughter festivities await."

He nodded, "So what are we then? Kissing Cousins? Regular Cousins? Ex's? Two random strangers that meet on a train?"

"I think we're Rory and Jess."

"A nice settlement."

Rory smiled cryptically, "We'll always have Paris," she quoted before she turned and walked away from him for the second time in his life.

He had always hated rejection.

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